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The "secret Chamber" beneath the Sphinx
'The "secret Chamber" ' The "secret Chamber" beneath the Sphinx is not really secret at all. It was known about for centuries, but forgotten in our own time.It was last described in print in 1953... yes, as recent as that. Countless subsequent speculations about secret chambers have all been published without anyone having any recollection or knowledge of the many accounts of the real secret chamber that have appeared in print since 1672. Published accounts of the chamber appeared several times in print during the 281 years that have elapsed from the first to the last mention of it. The location and measurements of the entrance shaft are known, as is the location of an apparent "burial chamber", which has been entered by several people. It appears that no-one today that claims to be an expert on the sphinx knows anything about these previous accounts in print. I have researched the sphinx and it's enclosure for a couple of years now, and have discovered the following.... There are several passages/tunnels that lead into the Sphinx... this is without doubt.. I have read many accounts from people that have entered them, and it would appear that studying these entrances may lead to discovery of a chamber/room below. We will discuss them in detail..... The most well known entrance into the Sphinx is the hole near the hindquarters/rump. It enters the structure and drops into a hollow in the rock. A modern ladder hasbeen placed in position in order to access the passage that is higher up within the orrifice. From the ladder you can see a narrow tunnel about 15 feet deep has been dug out of the rock. This is adequate for 2 people to stand up in. What a lot of people don't know, however, is that this tunnel also continues upwards.....lf. This tunnel goes south for a few feet, then turns east into towars the body of the Sphinx... and apparently ends abruptly, blocked by a concrete wall. (More about this later). The hip area of the sphinx has experienced a great deal of weakness and has been repared many times in antiquity. What did this tunnel originally lead to? That is the question..... Zahi Hawass and Mark Lehner actually wrote an article about the sphinx rump tunnel that was published in 1994, but is little known... The hole in the head of the Sphinx has been explored and found to go into the head only, and stop abruptly. There is also another hole, just behind the head.. that bores down about 6 metres into the structure, but again, ends abruptly. This is believed to be a fairly modern hole cut by explorers/grave robbers and therefore we will talk of it no more! A third tunnel into the Sphinx body is located on the north side of the sphinx, and has not been opened since 1926, when Emile Braize opened it. There are photographs available showing 2 workmen stood within this opening.... This tunnel has never been explored since it was sealed by Emile Braize in 1926 with bricks and mortar. On October 16 1980 Zawi Hawass and Mark Lehner removed a brick sized rock, bonded with modern cement, that was beleived to have been place dthere by Braize.... behind this brick was a grey cememnt packing that was obviously form Braize's 1926 restoration works... (Along with all the cement daubed onto the neck and headress to make it more stable). A hole was forced through this cement and it was found that the bedrock floor drops off into a cavity. Behind this cement was a large limestone slab, again, apparently put in place by Braize to cover the opening into the passage beyond. 'Now, the most interesting entrance/passage.... ' As you may be realising... the "restorations" carried out by Braize in 1926 were pretty drastic. Very early photo's of the sphinx show a huge fissure on top of the hips of the sphinx, which many claim led to the burial chamber. There is also documented evidence of a large rectangular entrance on top of the hips at the back of the sphinx. This entrance measured 4 feet x 2 feet in size and is mentioned in may travellers reports of visits to the sphinx. This shaft and burial chamber that it leads to is thought to have been formed during pharionic times, to form a retrospective burial chamber, which a few people actually gained access to. Unfortunately, by 1926, Braize had completely filled in this shaft and chamber with cement, thus making acces to the sub-terranian chamber impossible. The rump tunnel inside the sphinx, (Which, incidentally, is only now covered by the casing stones), also now terminates at this point, where braize's cement oozed into the tunnel on th eback and blocked this tunnel as well! There is also a little known cavity beneath the altar of the sphinx, which today is covered with a modern metal grille, but descends into a cavity below. During Henry Salt's "restoration" works in the early 1800's he entered this cavity, Apparently a passage ran from this cavity, again, into the body of the Sphinx, however, following an argument with Count De Forbin, (author of "Travels in the Holy land"), Salt and Forbin alledgedly had an argument about this cavity, with Forbin insisting someone should crawl along the passage contained within, but it appears Salt could not be bothered and "dealt with the situation" in the manner of a diplomat, simply by sealing the tunnel off and settling the matter by brute force! This brick wall remains until today.. and still, once again, no-one has even thought of knocking it down to have a look! Salt is unlikely to have had the resources of Braize that enable him to poor vast quantities of cement into the Sphinx to seal the opening, Salt's blockage would probably be easy to unblock.... However, back to the hole in the back! Charles Thompson, who visited the Shpinx in 1733, and published the account of his travels in 1754, talks of the "hole in the top of the back", He managed to uncover the hole under a light covering of sand. Thompson conveniently tells us precisely where in the top of the back this was, for he measured the distance and size of the hole. It is/was 75m feet from the back of the head, and 30 feet from the tail, in other words, In other words, it is at the point where the hips connect, and precisely where the huge fissure i mention earlier is located.... later to be filled by Braize with modern cement... Not to mention the "Cuppola's" that rest up against the side of the Sphinx.... no-one knows of their purpose..... So, in summary, and in answer to your question, Yes, a chamber beneath the Sphinx is well documented, although accounts of this chamber reveal that only some wood from a sarcophogas and some heiroglyphs were discovered.... which backs up the idea that this was formed out of a natural fissure in the limestone sometime in the Old Kingdom. This chamber is certainly not the fabled "Hall of records" that has been much spoken about and searched for. That remains a mystery..... The majority of the above material is taken from "The Sphinx Mystery", written by Robert Temple, and other sources gleaned from many months of reading... Stunning book! He systematically works his way through ALL printed accounts of observations of the Sphinx throughout the ages... All of these tunnels are well documented, but seem to be ignored by mainstream egyptologists... (surprise surprise). But it is all out there... Haven't found any accounts of the glyphs being translated.. Unfortunately the chamber was sealed by Braize's "restoration" works before we discovered how to decipher hieroglyphs... So maybe we will never know.. Unless of course, they decide to open it up... Which is next to impossible! I couldn't agree more... You appear to have misinterpreted my information above... I say that the shaft and chamber were formed in the Old Kingdom period... I also believe the Sphinx to be a lot older.... A lot older.